Chained and the Unchained
Raiden was no fool. This Seele was an unknown element. Unpredictable and clearly dangerous. She leapt back and landed on practiced feet, wanting to put distance between the two as she reassessed the situation.
'Raven is out cold. There are no grievous physical injuries. That leaves poison or a psychic assault the most likely cause of her incapacitation. Seele would have to be source. The information World Serpent has on the girl does not indicate she is capable of either.'
The Agent looked at the corpse of her Dragon. She would use Honkai energy to resurrect the beast later. For now she could only leave the body to weep blood and Honkai energy.
'Kurikawa. A single strike. No mercy. Seele's vocalisations indicate she is unhinged. Again no data in the files indicating this level of strength. Kinesics indicates Bronya is similarly surprised.'
"Very well then," Mei said in a low voice.
The air rumbled as Raiden pushed at the sound barrier, launching herself forward. It was at the last moment that Seele responded, spinning her scythe and knocking the slash away. Raiden followed with a flurry of blows, each aimed to cut into flesh, bleed the foe quickly so they could be subdued. Seele read the dance and replied appropriately. She twirled about on light feet, gliding across the expanding pool of Honkai beast blood with ease, the polearm moving in circular arcs as it deflected and parried Raiden's precise blows.
Finally seeing an opening, Raiden brought down her Odachi blade in an overhead strike. Seele casually lifted a hand up and caught the blade, Oni arms struggling against the girl's strength. Spiderweb cracks formed in the huge weapon as Seele held it tight. With a tsk Raiden withdrew, having to wrench the blade free, a piece of it still held in Seele's tight grip. Redirected Honkai energy repaired the weapon in seconds. Seele looked down at the piece of metal in her grip and smiled.
"A souvenir," she whispered, "A reminder of first piece of you I took. Metal. Then Blood. Flesh. Bone. Soul. You take and take and take and take. You're greedy, Raiden Mei. But I'm hungry and your body is standing just there, standing just ready to be pruned. Like a rosebush. After it blooms you cut it right. Did you know that? The harsher the better. No arms or legs. You'll make a fine rose bush."
Seele giggled to herself.
"Maybe they could grow new limbs for you. I've an idea."
Seele 'blinked' to where Raiden stood defensively, moving faster than before, scythe edge and haft a blur of rapid-fire strikes. Raiden was on the defensive now, katana flowing smoothly from one kata to another. She redirected the strikes, looking for an opportunity to retake the initiative.
A black chain limned in red light burst from the darkness, wrapping around Raiden's ankle and pulling the woman off her feet. Time slowed as Raiden tried to return control. Seele was so fast it didn't seem humanly possible. With a flare of power Raiden released a disintegrating wave, destroying the reinforced concrete beneath her. Falling into the hole, Raiden hung upside down and swung her katana once at the chain about her ankle. The binding was severed, Raiden falling down into the next floor. She spun mid-air and landed adroitly before withdrawing to the darkness.
Seele dropped through the hole and landed on soft feet, scythe resting on her shoulder, staying in a crouch as she surveyed the area.
"I can smell you," Seele giggled. "You can't feel it yet, can you? Check your left hand."
Raiden, though she was loath to take orders from the psychotic child, did as taunted. Her pinkie finger was missing. Arterial blood squirted from the wound. The cut had been so clean her mind had not registered. Electricity flared and cauterised the wound.
'She is fast. Capable. An adept fight. And seems to take sadist pleasure in my discomfort.'
"Thank you for the trinket to remember this by."
Seele sniggered.
"What's wrong, Mei? You're the big bad wolf when fighting Herrscher. Because you can turn their powers off. A cheat code. But you can't with me. You have to fight properly. That's a problem isn't it? Now you have to show how strong you are. How smart you area. Now it's a real fight.
Now you have to show how weak you are."
Crimson lightning rolled in a wave towards Seele. The girl lifted a hand and negated the attack, lightning crackling against an invisible shield projected by the outstretched limb.
Another dark chain dropped from the darkness of the ceiling and wrapped around Raiden's neck. A metal noose that pulled her up into the darkness. Raiden's mind panicked, her free hand grabbing and tugging at the tightening ring of death. Her hearing began to hiss, the colour of the room draining as Herrscher was starved of oxygen. In desperation Raiden's oni arms grabbed the chain and tore it apart.
Raiden was standing slack-jawed. No chain noose about her neck. With one hand she checked for ligature marks and found none.
"Aww that's no fun," Seele pouted, still in a crouch. "I wanted you to squirm a little longer."
'Illogical. Manifestation of matter via Honkai energy conversion. Psychic techniques. Enhanced physical characteristics. Reactive shielding against external attacks. None of my observations are rational in nature. I see no consistency.'
Raiden could see part of what Seele was doing. Keeping her away from Bronya. Since the girl had restored her Herrscher abilities she had disappeared. Raiden could not sense where her once friend had moved to.
'The two have a plan. I need to quash it. Quickly.'
"You are a natural born Stigma bearer," Raiden said, sheathing her katana and holding out a hand. "World Serpent does not want to hurt you. It would be like shattering a diamond. I can promise you your safety. And Bronya's too if you wish. She would be unharmed."
"You don't get it, do you?"
Raiden raised an eyebrow.
"Get what?"
"That family. They did nothing wrong. They wanted to live a normal life. What were you going to do to them? Or their children?"
"The children are Natural Stigma too. They would be protected."
"And their parents."
There was only silence.
"That's what I thought. Eugenics. People have tried that in the past. You want to know what happened to the people who thought it was a good idea? The courts that met out justice?"
Raiden let out a sigh. She had tried. She wanted this girl by her side. It would bring them that much closer to completing Project Stigma. The Twins too. Jackal needed them for the Project. Kevin wanted them alive. More data to complete the project. It improved the odds of saving Kiana.
Crackles of crimson lightning crawled along the tiled floors up the support pillars of the Mall floor. Red light flickered, briefly illuminating Raiden's body as she shifted into a long stance, one hand gripping the scabbard, the other curling around the hilt of her katana. An iajutsu of the Houkushin Itto Ryo. Raiden's Herrscher eyes glowed crimson in the darkness. Those crimson eyes were mirrored by Seele. The giggling girl, still in a crouch, lifted her head to lock gaze with Raiden. The magenta blood on her face still glowed. The warped flicker of a smile looked wrong on her otherwise gentle features.
"It's time to end this," Raiden said in a low voice.
'One quick strike. Enough to injure her severely. She won't die. But she will need prompt medical attention. The cleaners will arrive shortly. They can attend to her.'
The motion was faster than the thunderclap. Time turned glassy. Sound stretched out to a muted rumbles. The concrete dust falling from the ceiling where the Raiden had scorched her hole slowed, then stopped. Raiden closed the distance between the pair in a heartbeat, blade sliding neatly from its sheath, ready to disembowel her adversary.
Seele's eyes flicked up. Met Raiden's. She was gone
Raiden spun on heel, catching the blow aimed at her back. Let the raw power of the strike send her careening toward a support pillar. Reorientating herself, Raiden landed with feet against the pillar, concrete and pillar shattering under the impact, Raiden springing off the structure and pulling herself onto the roof with her electromagnetic abilities. Sprinting across the ceiling, Raiden dropped and reorientated herself, swinging her katana in a vertical strike, the nodachi blade in a broader horizontal slash. Seele ducked under the nodachi and rolled to one side to avoid the katana. Up on her feet she was in the fray again, scythe lashing out, teasing, testing further, pressing harder and faster. Raiden was approaching the protective barrier between the building level and the open atrium.
There was an opening. A weakspot. Raiden could feel the slowly retreating EM fields of the family they had been pursuing.
Bronya should have evacuated them by now. Something is amiss. I doubt they would risk civilians as bait. Which means they are unguarded.
Opportunity was all Raiden needed. She let Seele his her a touch too hard, allowed enough of the force to send her careening backwards and into a concrete pillar. The impact shattered the grey pillar, but left the steel rebar intact.
Just what Raiden needed.
With her back against the metal, Raiden adjusted her electromagnetic orientation, pulled herself onto the pillar and rolled up it. Running around the pillar she dropped into a crouch, tensed her legs, built up an EM field beneath her feet and launched downward. The bottom floor approached in barely a second, Raiden creating another EM field to cushion her blow, rolling as she struck the ground and coming up running, heading towards the corridor that the family were running down. She could feel them trying to disappear out a side door.
Seele was a fine jewel in World Serpent's crown. But the family were still her primary mission. If Raven were captured she would either escape later or kill herself before interrogation. That was for the Agent to decide. Raiden didn't care. She had only one goal and the mercenary was a convenient means to that end. Feet almost gliding through the air, Raiden rushed towards her mission goal. The corridor was narrow and unlit. That mattered little to Raiden's Herrscher eyes. At the far end she could see the bob of a torch and her goal.
Seele phase warped through the ceiling. Her body was a dark blue ripple as it shifted quantum forms, solidifying into a girl with an expression of anger. Raiden reached for her blade, readying another iajutsu strike. Then assessed the battlefield. In such a tight space, weapons such as hers or Seele's polearm could not be used. Raiden drew herself onto the ceiling us EM, aiming to slip over her obstacle.
A crimson spectre burst from the gloom of the roof at the far end of the corridor, spectral scythe ignoring any physical barriers as it swung in a wide arc. Raiden's reaction speed was fast enough to drop to her knees and slide under the horizontal slash. The spectre faded away, to be replaced by Seele who jumped up and now stood on wall of the corridor.
"Don't. You. Ever. Do. That. Again."
The hiss in the girl's voice was inhuman. Raiden got to her knees and shaped up.
"Round two," Raiden said in a disinterested voice.
